Once at a mixer, the host asked us to pick the one person we would like to meet from history. It was an interesting way to break the ice. I would pick Leonardo da Vinci, who I’ve long considered the ultimate Renaissance Man.
But I really didn’t know much about Leonardo until I read this brilliant biography by Walter Isaacson. Of course, I knew of his paintings such as the Last Supper and I’ve seen the Mona Lisa. In the Introduction to this book, the author writes about Leonardo’s letter to the ruler of Milan, listing the reasons he should be given a job. The letter extolled Leonardo’s engineering skills, including designing bridges, waterways, cannons, armored vehicles and public buildings. In the eleventh paragraph he adds, “Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible.” Painting was almost an afterthought for the man who was probably the greatest painter who ever lived. And there were times in his life when Leonardo couldn’t stand the sight of a paintbrush.
With his mastery of so many disciplines, I tended to think of Leonardo as an almost superhuman genius. He was, in fact, a genius, but a flawed one. Most of his paintings were never finished. He was a terrible procrastinator. He was constantly looking for patrons who would support him because he was not financially successful. Mostly because he would accept commissions and then immediately start making excuses for his lack of progress on the job. The Mona Lisa was a commission that was never delivered; Leonardo carried it with him from city to city, working on it from 1503 to 1517.
This book allows the reader to get to know Leonardo as the flawed human he was. He was an illegitimate child. He was a homosexual who always had at least one pretty young boy in his household. He painted and drew religious scenes but wasn’t much of a believer himself.
Leonardo has had many biographers over the 500 years since his death. What could possibly be new? Quite a lot, actually. There have been a number of discoveries in the last couple of decades about his life. It is remarkable that there are that many records from the period and that researchers continue to connect the dots.
Consider the people who were his contemporaries. Luca Pacioli, the first person to record the method of double-entry accounting, was a teacher and friend. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint one wall of a church while Leonardo painted the other side. Leonardo was friends with Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince. Leonardo was born within a year of Christopher Columbus. He was friends with Agostino Vespucci, whose brother was, like Columbus, an explorer. His name, Amerigo, would be adopted to name both continents of the Western Hemisphere. What’s on your LinkedIn profile?
The explanation of some of the techniques Leonardo used in his painting are just one of the highlights of the book. You know about the perspective used in the Last Supper. But did you know that Leonardo would paint the pupils of the eyes different sizes in a portrait, because the light on the two eyes would be different and the pupils dilate independently? He also had each eye ‘look’ at slightly different angles. This creates the illusion that the eyes in the painting are following the viewer as the viewer moves. There’s more, a lot more.
The author’s writing style makes one feel like they actually know Leonardo. Isaacson has done massive research into his subject, synthesized the knowledge and presented it in a masterful way. This may well be the best book I’ve ever read in my life. The subject is a genius but so too is the author.
Now, about the book itself. It is 600 pages but 525 are the text and 75 are the notes, abbreviations used, the index and credits for the illustrations. And while this is no coffee table book, it is profusely illustrated with drawings, excerpts from Leonardo’s notebooks, and, of course, his paintings. The book is a standard hardback book size, but heavy because of the number of pages and very high-quality paper that is used. That paper is heavy and bright white and serves the illustrations well. But it weighs almost four pounds, so it is a bit much to read in bed! Don’t get the audiobook! You can get a used hardcover copy on eBay for under $10.
Buy a copy and wander through it over the holidays. You’ll love it.
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